| Barbecue, says physicist Greg Blonder, is all about the smoke. Creating the right kind to impart the signature flavor, he says, is the point of cooking over charcoal. But charcoal is the wild west. The black, lumpy chunks all look more or less the same. What's inside the bag often is not. To be sure, most charcoal in the United States is made mostly of wood, generally scraps and sawdust from mills or manufacturing. But without much in the way of mandatory disclosure, the $1.5 billion international trade is anything but transparent. Is there a better way to barbecue, for you and the climate? Yes. From fancy electric kettle grills to restoring cheetah habitat with African acacia charcoal, you have options beyond traditional hardwood charcoal and briquettes. The ecological choice: Good Charcoal Co. In Namibia, droughts and poor land management have turned millions of hectares of grasslands into impenetrable thickets of thorny trees and bushes, particularly acacia. This dense hardwood plagues African farmers and wildlife — including cheetahs, which can be blinded by the underbrush as they hunt. So Good Charcoal Co. turned it into a product. The company, newly certified by the Forest Stewardship Council for responsible land management, partners with local farmers and ranchers who remove the acacia, char it in metal drums and ship it to the United States. (You can buy it at retailers such as Home Depot, Sam's Club and Target.) Does it work? I asked Jonathan Rosenberg, the general manager at Supperland in Charlotte, which feeds more than 250 people a day from a 14-foot wood-fired grill. "We can tell it burns hotter even than our great standard stuff," he says, and it imparts a flavor similar to oak and hickory charcoal. The convenient choice: Propane For Blonder, the perfect balance of convenience and taste is achieved with a gas grill. Burning gas has no flavor, but simply wrapping wood chips in foil on the grill gives food the same smoky essence associated with a barbecue — and a much faster cleanup. How does it fare climate-wise? Propane generates roughly three times fewer carbon emissions per unit of energy than run-of-the mill charcoal. But these estimates don't account for methane, a potent greenhouse gas, leaked as propane is refined and transported. The plug-and-play option: Electric grills Electric grills have come into their own as an easy, clean and high-performing alternative to open flame. The portable Weber Q 1400 electric grill is one of the most popular, but there are many models available ranging in price from $100 to $300. The fossil-fuel-free option: Solar cookers These are not grills, but with them you can cook almost anything outdoors that you might prepare on a kitchen range. Solar Cookers International says there are more than 4 million solar cookers around the world. Buy or make your own here. | 
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